WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the 2016 presidential campaign (All times EDT):
9:15 p.m.
Mike Pence is finishing his first day campaigning after the vice presidential debate with a blistering indictment of Hillary Clinton.
Playing off Clinton’s reference last month to half of Trump’s supporters as a “basket of deplorables,” Pence thunders, “You cannot lead people that you loathe.”
Pence is rallying more than 400 people in the rural southern part of Pennsylvania.
The audience waited for more than an hour for Pence, whose bus was late. Members of the audience shouted to Pence, “You did great,” praising his debate performance versus Democratic counterpart Tim Kaine.
Pence is accusing Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, of spending 30 years “perfecting the politics of personal profit.”
He says “it’s all going to come crashing in the day Donald Trump is elected.”
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7:43 p.m.
New York native Donald Trump is lecturing his supporters in Nevada that their state is correctly pronounced “Neh-VAH-da.”
The Republican presidential candidate performed an exaggerated form of his preferred pronunciation from the stage of a rally in Reno. He declared that “nobody says it the other way.” But the confused silence from the crowd mixed with a few shouts of disagreement indicated that quite a few Nevadans pronounce their home state “Neh-VAD-uh.”
American Bridge, a group that supports Hillary Clinton, immediately put up a web video declaring that Trump was “looking like an idiot” for getting the name wrong.
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6:54 p.m.
Hillary Clinton says Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence “bobbed and weaved” when he was asked to defend GOP nominee Donald Trump in Tuesday night’s debate.
Clinton says at a Washington fundraiser that Pence was trying to get out of the way of defending his running mate because defending Trump “is an impossible task.”
Pence stood up for Trump’s leadership qualities but let some of Kaine’s criticisms of Trump’s remarks on Mexicans and women stand.
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6:44 p.m.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine says he won the debate against Mike Pence. But acknowledged that even his wife gave him a hard time for interrupting Pence so much.
Hillary Clinton’s running mate joked to supporters Wednesday at a Philadelphia sheet metal workers union hall that being Irish is to blame for his feisty approach.
The Virginia senator has been widely criticized for his aggressive style at the debate.
Kaine kept up his criticism of Pence on Wednesday for not sticking up for his presidential candidate, Donald Trump.
Kaine said, “Your running mate ought to be able to defend you.”
Kaine compared himself to a good hockey goalie who blocked Pence from scoring any substantive attacks on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
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6:15 p.m.
Democrats are courting organized labor in eastern Ohio by highlighting Donald Trump’s use of Chinese steel and aluminum in his construction projects.
Newsweek reported on the Republican nominee’s dealings earlier this week. It came up throughout Bill Clinton’s bus tour in an area of Ohio critical to Hillary Clinton’s chances against Trump. The billionaire businessman has railed against international trade.
Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown told union workers Wednesday in Canton that Trump stiffed Americans by buying illegally subsidized materials from overseas. Brown said all Trump does “is run his mouth and pad his pocket.”
Bill Clinton said “they knew they were selling that steel illegally.” The former president argued Hillary Clinton’s proposals would foster economic growth in the United States without abandoning international trade.
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5:45 p.m.
Sen. John McCain is defending Donald Trump after the GOP nominee seemed to suggest that veterans suffering from mental health issues may not be as strong as those who don’t.
The Arizona senator says in an interview with the Arizona Daily Star’s editorial board that Trump’s comments were misconstrued by the press.
He calls it “the classic example of the media feeding frenzy that is going on. The bias that is in the media.”
Trump drew criticism from some veterans groups when he said earlier this week that some who have served are “strong” and “can handle it. But a lot of people can’t handle it.”
Trump thanked McCain on Twitter for his “kind remarks.”
Trump and McCain have had a stormy relationship, with Trump at one point questioning whether McCain should be considered a war hero because the former prisoner of war was captured during the Vietnam War.
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5:03 p.m.
Donald Trump is calling the Federal Reserve “a political organization” and suggested that Chairwoman Janet Yellen was keeping interest rates low at the Obama administration’s behest.
Trump was sharply critical of the Fed during a Wednesday luncheon with Latino business leaders at a Mexican restaurant in Las Vegas.
The Republican nominee bemoaned how hard it was for minority-businesses to receive bank loans and then criticized the Fed, calling it “another political arm of the administration.”
The Federal Reserve is an independent organization and Yellen last week denounced Trump’s previous claim that she was considering politics when making decisions about interest rates.
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3:55 p.m.
Donald Trump is once again pushing back on characterizations by his Democratic rivals that he’s too cozy with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He says at a rally in Henderson, Nevada, that people say, “Donald Trump loves Putin. I don’t love, I don’t hate, we’ll see how it works.”
Trump says that maybe he and Putin will have “a good relationship. Maybe we’ll have a horrible relationship. Maybe we’ll have a relationship right in the middle.”
But he is repeating his willingness to work with the strongman to combat Islamic State group militants despite disagreements between the two countries.
Trump says, “If we got along with Russia and Russia went out with us and knocked the hell out of ISIS, that’s OK with me.”
Washington this week suspended direct U.S.-Russian talks on a Syria cease-fire in a move blamed on Russia’s rejection of diplomacy in favor of helping the Assad government.
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3:50 p.m.
Republican Mike Pence has emerged from the vice presidential debate newly energized.
He’s set on winning over small-town and rural conservatives in big, influential states for Donald Trump.
But the praise Pence is receiving after Tuesday’s debate is also an awkward reminder of Trump’s failings in his own debate. Unlike Trump, the understated Pence kept calm during the debate, never getting riled during the stream of attacks from Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine.
That has some Republicans wishing he was atop the ticket - and thinking that he may be in the future if Trump doesn’t win this year.
Pence kept up his subdued tone on a bus tour Wednesday through Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
At a Virginia rally, he joked: “I’m the other face on the bus.”
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3:35 p.m.
Donald Trump is taking credit for Mike Pence’s strong debate performance because it was “my first hire.”
Trump, speaking Wednesday in Nevada, said Pence did “an incredible job” and “I’m getting a lot of credit” because the Indiana governor was his choice to be vice president.
The Republican nominee also said that Tuesday’s debate allowed voters “to look first-hand at my judgment.” And he said “you need judgment for people, for deals.”
Trump chose Pence in July after days of very public ruminations about whom he should select as a running mate.
Pence squared off with Democrat Virginia Senator Tim Kaine in the lone vice presidential debate. Trump will hold his second debate with Hillary Clinton on Sunday in St. Louis.
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3:30 p.m.
Mike Pence is making a pit stop - that is, barbecue pit stop - in the northwest Virginia city of Harrisonburg.
Pence stopped at the Bar-BQ Ranch, a roadside restaurant where a sign proclaims: “Pigs are beautiful.”
Pence and his daughter Charlotte — followed by Secret Service and press —grabbed pulled pork sandwiches, topped with coleslaw, and worked the late lunch group at the 68—year-old joint popular with the James Madison University crowd.
Pence poked his head through the order window and said: “I’ve heard you got some good barbecue here.”
Pence stopped to talk to Gerald Spence, a JMU math instructor. Spence congratulated Pence on his debate performance against Tim Kaine the night before. He said: “You laid some good ones on him.”
Pence replied: “I did my best.”
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2:21 p.m.
Donald Trump is praising his running Mike Pence’s performance in the vice presidential debate.
The Republican nominee, speaking Wednesday at a church in Las Vegas, said he was “very proud” to watch his running mate square off against Hillary Clinton’s ticket mate, Tim Kaine.
Trump said Pence “won on the issues.”
“Some say he won on style but style doesn’t matter,” said Trump, who noted that Pence was getting “great reviews” in the media.
The celebrity businessman spoke as he visited with a group of pastors at the International Church of Las Vegas. Trump also praised Pence as a “good Christian” before reading a verse from the Bible.
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2:05 p.m.
Donald Trump is warning that a Hillary Clinton victory in November would “endanger religious liberty” across America.
The Republican presidential nominee said that if Clinton won “religious liberty wouldn’t be there” and the result would be “a different country.”
Trump again vowed to overturn the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits houses of worship advancing specific candidates or political parties.
He made the remarks at a visit to the International Christian Academy, a charter school affiliated with the International Church of Las Vegas
He also visited an indoor soccer practice and a 1st grade classroom, where the students greeted him with the gift of a Bible and then recited both the Pledge of Allegiance and an adaption of that called Pledge to the Bible.
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12:50 p.m.
Hillary Clinton is at her Washington home, preparing for the second presidential debate.
Campaign chairman John Podesta, top aide Jake Sullivan and debate team advisers Ron Klain and Karen Dunn arrived at the Democratic nominee’s home around lunchtime Wednesday.
Podesta told reporters that the town hall setting for Sunday’s debate in St. Louis “is a natural format for her.”
Podesta said “that’s a format that Donald Trump isn’t as used to.”
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